The first day of the Phakisa 400, the sixth and penultimate round of the SA Rally-Raid Championship that takes place over two days from Phakisa Raceway at Welkom this weekend, tested competitors over 156 kilometres of fast and furious routes in a windy and dusty Free State, and after the Castrol Qualifying Race and Stage One on Friday, 13 September, the scene for an intense second day is set where more thrilling action can be expected.
Day One of the Phakisa 400 started early with the 14-kilometre Castrol Qualifying Race that determined the starting order for Stage One early in the afternoon. And when the dust had settled, it was the current SARRC overall and Ultimate T1+ leaders, Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings (Toyota Gazoo Racing Hilux IMT EVO) who posted the fastest time, 12 seconds ahead of the defending champions and the winners of this event last year, Gareth Woolridge/Boyd Dreyer (Neil Woolridge Motorsport Ford Ranger T1+) with Guy Botterill/Dennis Murphy (Toyota Hilux IMT EVO) in third place, a mere three seconds behind the Ford.
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Jayden Els/Johann Swemmer (King Price Xtreme) were one second further adrift in the Century CR7 after only testing this vehicle for 120 odd kilometres earlier in the week. Giniel de Villiers/Elvéne Vonk (Toyota Hilux IMT EVO) rounded out the top five, four seconds behind Els/Swemmer.
The current Adventurer T1 class leaders, Johan de Bruyn/Adriaan Roets (Red-Lined REVO T1) posted the best time in this class where another tight battle for the championship is set to continue in the Free State. They were followed by the Heinlein duo of Gerhard and Rudi (Red-Lined VK56); Johan and his son, Sean van Staden (Renault Duster) and two more Red-Lined Motorsport VK56 teams, Philip Botha/Andries Mynhardt and newcomers Danie Ludick/Denzil Williamson.
There were early problems for the title chasers, Eben Basson/Leander Pienaar (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid Toyota) who bent a steering rod on the racetrack and could not complete the qualifying race. Their service team were kept busy after the qualifying race to do the necessary repairs to enable the team to start Stage One.
The fastest 10 teams then drew for their starting positions for Stage One with the leaders – Lategan/Cummings, who rolled their vehicle at this event last year – deciding to start further down the field from 10th place with the Blignaut brothers, Fouche and Bertus (#TeamHilux Rally-Raid Toyota Hilux IMT EVO), who were 10th fastest, opening the road. Behind them Chris Visser/Albertus Venter (Red-Lined REVO T1+ GTR), who were seventh, pulled off second followed by the second NWM Ford Ranger T1+ team of Lance Woolridge/Kenny Gilbert.
The wind as well as the dust played a major role in the race while the teams who started further down, had to battle with the extremely thick and churned-up sand in sections. Lategan/Cummings’ strategy eventually turned out in their favour despite the challenging conditions. The team managed to again post the fastest time and with the first day literally done and dusted, their combined time (01:47:09) was a minute and 27 seconds faster than the runners-up, Botterill/Murphy with (01:48:36) with De Villiers/Vonk rounding off an all Toyota Gazoo Racing podium a further 29 seconds further back.
Gareth Woolridge/Dreyer were fourth (01:49:06), a mere 26 seconds ahead of Els/Swemmer who turned their good qualifying race into a positive outcome on Stage One after some bad luck at recent races. Visser/Venter (01:49:45) were fifth battling overheating problems and were followed by the Blignaut brothers (01:49:54) who found opening the road quite tricky.
The Dutch driver, Rients Hofstra and Wade Harris (Red-Lined Motorsport REVO T1+ GTR) made up one place after qualifying ninth and were eighth (01:50:31) with the team followed by the German driver, Daniel Schröder and Henry Köhne (WCT VW Amarok) who were ninth despite picking up a two-minute penalty. They trail Hofstra/Harris by 67 seconds.
De Bruyn/Roets kept their advantage in the Adventurer T1 class and finished 10th overall (01:52:25) and as expected, this class battle did not disappoint. The Heinlein duo will be starting just behind them with a minute and 21 seconds the difference while the Van Staden family (01:55:18) are currently on the podium and again not too far behind the leaders.
With the adapted time for not finishing the qualifying race in place, Basson/Pienaar produced the goods to finish fourth in the Adventurer T1 Class and are 13th overall with a total time of 02:01:06 and they will have to chip away on the time difference to the leaders. The two Red-Lined Motorsport teams also clocked in after Stage One with Ludick/Williamson fifth in the class (02:01:35) and Botha/Mynhardt (02:03:04) sixth.
Lance Woolridge/Gilbert had to call it a day due to a brake disk failure after a heavy impact incident in Stage 1.
Teams are hoping for more hard-pack routes on the second day of the Phakisa 400 where teams will start at 08:30 to take on Stages Two and Three each comprising 180 kilometres.
Published by SA-Rally-Raid Championship (Charmaine Fortune)
Photography by: Dave Ledbitter
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